This is not necessarily a sequel to The Secret of NIMH.
This is more like a drastically different version of the story. The main
difference is probably the setting. Instead of intelligent mice and rats living
in their own world, in this version they live along side humans. In this world,
humans and rodents live with each other as people. The world is exactly the
same as it appears around you. Except that if you lived here, some of your friends
would be mice and rats as well as humans. The same events have taken place in
this world over it’s existence as in our own. Why is it this way you ask? I’m
really not sure, I started making this up when I was eleven. So I figured, why
change it, it should make for an interesting twist in the story. Besides, mice
and rats are cool and I have no idea how Mrs. Brisby would look as a human.
Note that this is written in a combination of novel and script form. I did this
so it would be easier to keep track of who is speaking. Something else I must
mention, this is a chronicle as the name implies. Don’t look for a plot,
because there is none.

Anyway, this story is not about the world I’ve made up. It’s
about the Brisbys, the same Brisbys from the movie. The Brisbys are a typical
American family of mice from the Midwest. They live in a small farming
town(that doesn’t really exist) called Thorn Valley in Northeastern Kansas.
Jonathan and Mrs. Brisby are in their eleventh year of marriage. They are
living comfortably as a low/middle class family. Life is grand for them.
Jonathan holds one secret from his beloved wife, he is a member of the Rats of
NIMH. The events all start taking place in winter 1987. I started thinking this
up around then so I made it take place at that time.

In this world, the Rats of NIMH ( I never really figured out
what to make NIMH stand for, but I couldn’t get rid of it) are a cult or
militia. They are not out to overthrow the government or anything. They more or
less live together sharing common views and interests. The common Rat of NIMH
dresses like a medieval knight and carries a sword. Unlike the Rats in the
movie, these guys have lots of nasty guns too. The leader is of course,
Nicodemus, and is quite old. Certain members of the group have decided to
finance the Rats by being hired hit-men. Usually focusing on people who they
see, deserve it. When they leave their undiscovered dwelling, they are in full
uniform and wear masks. So all members that have ever been seen by the public
remain anonymous. Nicoldemus doesn’t like this hired hit-men stuff, it
completely goes against what the group stands for. Not to mention it has
recently been attracting lots of attention from the police. Nicodemus has
recently developed a plan to end the killer-for-hire fiasco and relocate the
Rats to another part of the country. Since Jonathan resides outside the colony,
he has been given the duty of monitoring police activity with a police band
scanner. He has been able to do this for the last four years without incident.
But most of the Rats would prefer to not need to worry about it. So they are
with Nicodemus and his plan to move. Jonathan in particular because he has a
family to take care of.

Jenner, the one in charge of the hit-men group, is very opposed to this
idea. He likes being a hired killer and doesn’t want to move. He would also
like to become the Rats of NIMH leader. Because of his disagreement, he heavily
resents all the Rats taking action with the moving plan. And he really doesn’t
like Jonathan Brisby because Jonathan is giving the group more reason to want
to move by telling them that the cops are starting to get ideas of where they
might be. Jenner, of course, thinks that Jonathan is full of shit and figures
he can deal with a few small town cops.

Well, Jenner has just about had it with Jonathan. On an icy February night,
he decides to take action. Shortly before Jonathan leaves for home after a Rats
of NIMH gathering, Jenner and his coconspirator Sullivan, head down the road a
ways. With Sullivan at the wheel, Jenner stands up in his seat. With the top
half of his body outside the open sunroof and a high powered hunting rifle in
hand, he blows a hole right in Jonathan’s left front tire. This sends his large
4x4 pickup out of control. After doing one full flip, the truck goes off the
embankment and lands upside down, leaving Jonathan with a crushed skull and
broken neck (That’s right. Jenner kills both Jonathan and Nicodemus in this
version. Sorry, no giant cats). Soon, a passing patrolman finds the dead
Jonathan in full Rats of NIMH uniform! This is the cops’ first good lead. And
Mrs. Brisby is the first person they pick on.

Mrs. Brisby fell to the floor crying hysterically at the news of Jonathan’s
death. Not only that, but at the same time, the police started asking her
questions about his involvement with the Rats of NIMH. It was obvious to the
police that she had no idea her husband was with the Rats. They also decided
they should let things cool down for a while. This ‘while’ turned into about two
months. This was about the amount of time Mrs. Brisby needed to get herself
back onto the routine known as everyday life.

Jonathan left behind his wife and four children. Teresa, the oldest at
eleven when her father died, took his death a little better than her mother.
Martin, a few weeks shy of his tenth birthday, took his fathers death about the
same as Teresa, but being more quiet about it. He let out his emotions when by
himself or around Teresa. Although all the Brisby kids share a very close bond,
Martin and Teresa have the closest. Timothy, a few weeks shy of his sixth
birthday, was quite disturbed by his father’s death. Because of his young age,
the effects will be more long term. This will be explained later. Cynthia, the
youngest at only two (I know this is rather young, but we’ll just pretend she
learned to talk early) was rather emotional at the sight of the rest of the
family’s hysteria and depression. She will grow up never really knowing who her
father was, having only a few visions and photographs as a reminder of his
existence. She won’t visit his graveside until age eleven.

This next part of the story more or less parallels the movie’s events. It
takes place during the first full week of April 1987, starting Monday.